Google is considered as a phenomenal brand that stands for its innovation and leadership and completes mammoth tasks in grace. Another thing that goes Google”s way is that it is known for its optimistic approach to future planning. Personally for me this is the one company that directly affects the daily lives of people. Microsoft on the other hand has revolutionized what software industry by its greatest innovations of Windows the legendary Operating system which till date gives the other companies a run for their money when it comes down to user friendliness and ease of use.

The only reason for dislike for the two companies is due to their voracious eater reputation which of course comes from the havoc that broke loose when the news about both companies acquiring Yahoo! came into being. But even then we love them both as they make the large information out there usable for us!

Is Google a threat to the company where the genesis of the most popular Operating System of the world happened? Is Microsoft feeling the pressure to prove this wrong? Is Google trying to push Microsoft out of the picture considering the rate at which this giant is growing?? Well, I have made an attempt to answer these questions. Read on…

Starting with the brand value of the two giants.

After being declared as the number one brand in 2003, Microsoft never really had a chance to get back to that position owing to the increasing fame of Google. The position which was once Microsoft’s is now unamiously that of Google as the formers market value dipping and the latter’s leaping at an astounding pace! And finally in 2007 Google was declared as the number one!

From the 20th position in 2007, to the 10th position in 2008 and then the top position later, there really has not been any looking back for Google. This does not mean in any way that Microsoft is not getting their pie in the market. If we look at their turnovers and profit there hasn’t been much of a change but their goodwill sure has been shadowed by that of Google. It is probably after this that Microsoft decided to give the search giant its run for money with developing its new search engine Bing which has surely come a long way keeping in mind its not so popular Microsoft Live Search.

Search engine arena

Bing claims to be a “decision engine” and that it doesnt jus ‘SPIT OUT’ results on the order of popularity(am sure that would have hit Google really hard! ). It’s designed to help people search the Web more intelligently — to find the right information that can aid them in making decisions. The benefits of using Bing are very subtle but only with use they become evident. It is not as intutive as one would want it to be. For instance, if we roll over the results, in the margin we might more links leading to more information. Bing is being suggested to be the best for product related , travel related searches where it not only gives the information but can also order the results according to preferences like cost, hygine etc. The results that Bing gives are ofcourse different from that of Google which was very much expected as they use different algortithms. But it is said that when it comes to specific searches the results were more or less similar. One of the major drawbacks are that Bing’s video search tool has a preview mode that lets you view and listen to part of a video simply by hovering over it with your mouse. Trouble is, it works with porn as well as “family friendly” videos.If you would like to know more here are some reviews 1 , 2

One June 4, according to data just released by StatCounter Global Stats, Bing accounted for 5.62 per cent of all worldwide searches, compared to Yahoo!’s 5.13 per cent. Meanwhile, Google grabbed a typically monopolistic 87.62 per cent.

This new kid on the block is definitely off to a great start lets see whether it can be a threat to the search behemoth Google! (Being a Google fan it just doesnt sound so likely! 😛 But I have to agree that Bing is much better than its predecessor!) Some say that it took Microsoft a decade to make its way to the battle ground, turning up late to a fight that has already been won, the victor having since turned their attention to loftier pursuits. Its just a matter of time

In the same week Bing came out, Google unveiled their secret project Walkabout, or as we now know it, Google Wave. Google Wave addresses the simple question, “What would online messaging look like if we built it today?”. Google gas been working on this for two years but even then it seems they are still the only contenders in its area, with no other companies raising hands to say they were also trying to solve the problem Wave addresses.Google really knows how to be on the top! 😛

Wave brings together e-mail and instant messaging, as well as forums and blogs and wikis and business collaboration all in one new protocol.Rather than require a user to decide on a specific form of communication which the message will forever be bound to – like an e-mail or IM – Google Wave implements living messages. They are simultaneously e-mails and IMs. They are blogs and wikis and documents all at the one time. Some key technologies in Wave are Real-time collaboration, Natural language tools, etc. To know more click here.

Here’s a video, I know its long but its awesome!

Operating System Arena

In this arena Microsoft sure has its monopoly. Let us see what happens with Google stepping in here also.Google is set to offer its free Android mobile-phone operating system for computers, opening a new front in its rivalry with Microsoft Corp.by challenging the dominance of the company’s Windows software. This sure is turning out to be an epic-battle!

Web Browser arena

Overall IE numbers still dropping as IE8 gains share at the expense of IE7 while rivals like Chrome,Firefox and Safari gain users. It is said that Chrome’s usage share climbed by 0.4 of a percentage point, from 1.4 to 1.8 percent, the largest one-month increase since the browser debuted last September. The gain represented a 27 percent surge over April. Good news for Google again. Though IE 8 is better than the earlier versions lets see if it manages to lure users but it is said that IE8 presents a special tallying problem for Net Applications. The trouble stems from IE8’s “compatibility view” feature, which lets users display sites as rendered by the older — and often Web standard-incompatible — IE7.

Who has the last laugh??? Well, it is really hard to say but I think seeing the innovative stuff Google is coming up with, it gives us users this feeling that it knows what we want! So for this reason I would vote Google! 🙂

With its most visited feature displaying a screenshots of your most visited sites not only makes your chrome colourful put also very personalized! Not even having to type a single letter you have the freedom to navigate to the sites you wish in style!

I know its been quite some time since Chrome was out and this post is “late” as a review to it! But better late than never!!!! As for me, I am totally addicted to ChRoMe and completely love the look and feel of it!

Features like the incognito window are really cool! That is what would make it a teenagers choice! 🙂 Google really knows what the users want!

Google knows speed is addictive — search queen Marissa Mayer has repeatedly said that a few hundred milliseconds per page makes a 20 percent difference in how often users type a search into Google.One of the company’s major goals with Chrome is to effectively speed up the Internet for end users.

Here are the results of a speed test where Chrome not only beat the competition against Safari, Mozilla and IE, it completely annihilated them.

Chrome also came out ahead in an admittedly Google-sponsored security test. The reason: The browser automatically updates itself every few days. This means Chrome users are most likely to have the latest security updates installed.

Another question that has been of concern to most people is: Is Chrome the next IE????

Nothing is clear as yet. Microsoft is hesitant to bundle Chrome with Windows as it may give Google a monopoly over Internet as the default search engine would be Google. This is what they have to say :

“Google’s Chrome browser has a market share that rounds down to zero. Yet Microsoft plans to argue to the European Commission that bundling Chrome into Windows — an anti-trust decree the EC wants to impose — will potentially give Google a monopoly hold on the InternetThe claim seems laughable to anyone who hasn’t used Chrome. But those who try the largely unknown application almost unanimously rave about its speed and ease of use.Microsoft’s argument may seem comical, but there’s a kernel of truth to it: If Google ends up with a majority share of browser users tied to Chrome, and Google’s search engine is their most frequent and trusted destination, think of the opportunities for Google to leverage that huge group of people.”

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